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NRA's Wayne LaPierre slams Obama State of the Union speech

NRA Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre accused President Barack Obama of abandoning the cause of school safety in a response to the State of the Union on Thursday, saying the president “displayed a level of political fraud and public deception that cannot be ignored.”

“It was only a few weeks ago when they were marketing their anti-gun agenda as a way of protecting schoolchildren from harm,” LaPierre told the National Wild Turkey Federation’s annual convention in Nashville, Tenn. “That charade ended at the State of the Union, when the president himself exposed their fraudulent intentions. It’s not about keeping kids safe at school. That wasn’t even mentioned in the president’s speech. They only care about their decades-long, decades-old gun control agenda.”

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LaPierre contrasted the president’s remarks a few days after the massacre of 20 children at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, Conn., when Obama said “nothing else matters” besides school safety, to the lack of a direct mention at Tuesday’s State of the Union.

“In an hourlong speech, no where were the words ‘school safety’ to be found,” he said. “Just think about that. Less than two months after saying we had to look at our schools, the president made not one mention — in his entire speech — of the need to improve security for our schoolchildren. When nothing else matters to every parent in America, President Obama had nothing to say on school security. And nothing he proposed has anything to do with protecting one child at any school in this country.”

While Obama didn’t directly use the phrase “school safety” in his speech, he invoked Newtown as a reason to pass his gun control proposals, including an assault weapons ban, mandatory background checks, a federal gun-trafficking law and a ban on extended magazines. All four of those measures garner majority support in public opinion polls.

“The families of Newtown deserve a vote,” Obama said in the speech.

LaPierre’s speech fits with the NRA’s initial strategy of shifting the debate to school safety rather than gun control. A week after the Newtown massacre, LaPierre delivered a fiery speech proposing armed guards or police officers at every school in the United States.

LaPierre also attacked the effectiveness of the background check system, claiming it could never be “universal” and would only function as a registry of gun owners. He also attacked Obama for failing to mention improving the nation’s mental health system in his speech.

“Hurricanes. Tornadoes. Riots. Terrorists. Gangs. Lone criminals,” LaPierre wrote. “These are perils we are sure to face — not just maybe. It’s not paranoia to buy a gun. It’s survival. It’s responsible behavior, and it’s time we encourage law-abiding Americans to do just that.”